In their final game of the year at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Blue Devils looked to bounce back after a disappointing loss to No. 17 Florida State to keep their slim hopes of an ACC title alive.
After overcoming a 2-1 set deficit, Duke did just that.
The Blue Devils bolstered their NCAA tournament body of work with a dramatic 3-2 (25-13, 18-25, 27-29, 25-21, 15-10) win against Miami on Senior Day Sunday afternoon. In her last home game, senior middle blocker Jordan Tucker posted a career-high 25 kills and a .615 hitting percentage to lead the comeback. Thanks to the front-line quartet of Tucker, junior Cadie Bates, sophomore Leah Meyer and freshman Samantha Amos, Duke weathered a close third set loss to eventually flip the momentum of the match and finish on top.
“[It was a] mentality shift,” Tucker said. “We just let go of everything and were like 'Hey, if we're going to do it, we've got to do it right now,' and it's a do or die for all of us. It was Senior Night but it was everyone's last game in Cameron for the year, so we just buckled down and decided, 'Hey, let's get this done.'”
The Blue Devils (21-7, 15-3 in the ACC) started off strong with Bates and Tucker finding holes in the Miami defense. Duke put up a .423 hitting percentage against the Hurricanes in the first set, cruising to an easy 25-13 win. Just as they did against the Seminoles, the Blue Devils looked like they were ready to build on their start in the second set.
But for the second straight game, the road team seized control after Duke's hot start.
In the second set, Miami (14-16, 8-10 in the ACC) found stride on offense. Hurricane junior Olga Strantzali and sophomore Anna Haak proved to be a deadly offensive combination, with Strantzali racking up a total of 29 kills and Haak at 22. Two aces gave Miami a 19-14 advantage, which they maintained through the end of the set. Even after Meyer sank two back-to-back kills, Miami evened the ledger 1-1 with a 25-18 victory.
Right out the gate in the third, Miami led Duke, this time by a 11-6 margin to start. But just as the gap between the Blue Devils and the Hurricanes widened, Tucker took over.
The Prairie Village, Kan., native hammered out four straight kills, tying the score at 11 to keep Duke in the set. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Duke’s penchant for errors flared up with six in the set, putting the Blue Devils in a 24-19 hole. Duke's back line stepped up with Bates and senior Sasha Karelov saving tough balls with just inches to spare and Meyer, Tucker and Amos notching kills to tie the score.
Tucker even notched her 14th kill to give the Blue Devils a set point, but Strantzali and Haak recovered to put Miami back on top in the back-and-forth set. An untimely service error and attack error by Duke gave the Hurricanes the third set 29-27.
“Our team has done a great job of digging deep within themselves and coming together as a team," Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. "They really kind of left [the third set] behind going into that fourth set, which was great. We focused on playing the best points possible in that fourth set.”
The Blue Devils won the first six points of the fourth set, with Tucker adding eight kills in the frame to give her team a 20-13 lead before a Miami timeout. The Hurricanes rallied to the cut the deficit to two, but Karelov and senior Chloe DiPasquale stepped up with timely digs—they combined for 36 Sunday—and Duke held on to finish the fourth set 25-21.
The Blue Devils made sure the final set would not be as dramatic, hitting .440 with just one attack error. Duke notched five straight kills to build a 12-7 lead and finished off the victory with a kill from Bates.
Nagel's team will now travel to No. 6 North Carolina to take on the Tar Heels Wednesday. North Carolina leads the ACC at 17-1 and either needs to beat the Blue Devils for the second time this season—the teams met early in the year in September—or Wake Forest to win the conference championship. A win against a ranked team could do wonder's for Duke's confidence even if it does not win the conference, as the Blue Devils will take on N.C. State Saturday before finding out their NCAA tournament fate.
“We want to end strong and win as many as we can,” Tucker said. “Whatever that means at the end of the season, wherever we go from there, that's what happens. We really want to focus on being the best team we can when it's all said and done."
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